PS Cheshire (1889)

PS Cheshire was a passenger vessel built for the Town Council of Birkenhead in 1889 for use as a Mersey ferry.[1]

History
Name: 1889-1913: PS Cheshire
Operator:
Port of registry:
Builder: Canada Works Engineering and Shipbuilding Company, Birkenhead
Launched: 1889
Out of service: 1913
Fate: Broken up 1911
General characteristics
Length: 142 feet (43 m)
Beam: 48 feet (15 m)
Draught: 10 feet (3.0 m)
Installed power: 510 hp
Propulsion: Two diagonal compound S.C. engines

History

She was built in Canada Works, Birkenhead in 1889 for the Town Council of Birkenhead for use as a Mersey Ferry. There was some dispute with the builder as she was refused by the commissioners, and was put up for sale, but the highest bid of £4,500 (equivalent to £501,048 in 2019)[2] did not meet the reserve price, so she was withdrawn.[3]

In 1903 she was put up for sale by the Birkenhead Corporation[4] and eventually she was sold to the Great Western Railway who deployed her as a tender in Plymouth.

On 9 December 1905 she was in collision with the Maggie Hough of Liverpool in dense fog in Plymouth sound. The Cheshire had just taken on board from the American liner SS City of New York 47 passengers and mail bags, and did not see the Maggie Hough which was anchoring in the channel for the fog to lift.[5]

She was broken up in Germany in October 1911.[6]

References
  1. Duckworth, Christian Leslie Dyce; Langmuir, Graham Easton (1968). Railway and other Steamers. Prescot, Lancashire: T. Stephenson and Sons.
  2. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  3. "The Value of Shipping Property". Fife Free Press, & Kirkcaldy Guardian. Scotland. 23 November 1889. Retrieved 14 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. "Sales by Auction". Hampshire Advertiser. Hampshire. 9 May 1903. Retrieved 14 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. "Collisions at Sea". Lichfield Mercury. Lichfield. 15 December 1905. Retrieved 14 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. "Cheshire (1097754)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
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